Crime in Pismo Beach, California
Major crime in Pismo Beach is 19% above the U.S. rate per resident: 16% higher for persons crimes and 19% higher for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 7.3% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 5.9 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Pismo Beach for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across Pismo Beach
The middle half of Pismo Beach residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 45 and 209; the typical (median) resident's is 66. The citywide figure (119) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5039.8%
- 50–10029.0%
- 100–2000.0%
- 200–40031.1%
- 400+0.0%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weekend daytimes
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 7.3% in a year; across California it fell 7.4%
Change in expected crimes, with California as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Pismo Beach against U.S. places with 5,000 to 10,000 residents
415 of the 2,163 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Pismo Beach; the middle of the group is 63. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Pismo Beach has a higher major-crime index than 7 of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Grover Beach (3 mi), is 55% below Pismo Beach's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Pismo Beach
What are the most common crimes in Pismo Beach?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 45 a year), other larceny (about 43 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 30 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 5.9 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Pismo Beach's figures add up its 6 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Pismo Beach's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 10.4% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 7,830. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Pismo Beach, California." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ca/pismo-beach
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Grover Beach3 mi54
- Oceano4 mi79
- Arroyo Grande4 mi44
- San Luis Obispo8 mi133
- Nipomo12 mi57
- Los Osos16 mi50
- Santa Maria18 mi114
- Morro Bay19 mi66